Team

In establishing any new venture, a key ingredient is the right mix of committed and appropriately skilled people. We are particularly pleased with our ‘start-up team’ . We have a combination of professionals and “peer professionals”. Half or more of the Director/Trustees have either personal or direct family experience of bipolar disorder.

Director – Trustees

Alan Ogilvie, Equilibrium Medical Director/Trustee

Alan is a psychiatrist, who trained in Edinburgh and Cambridge including with the Medical Research Council. Now based in Oxford, UK – where he works as a clinician but has also been involved in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Alan’s specific focus is directed at the understanding and treatment of bipolar disorder. He has been involved in the care of many hundreds of people with this problem including a period being responsible for running a specialist treatment unit while teaching at the University of Cambridge. He has published more than 26 articles in this subject area. He has been a clinical expert adviser to the UK National Library for Health Mental Health Specialist Library.

Glyn Jarvis, UK – Programme Director/Trustee

With a background in clinical psychology and with previous experience in financial services. Glyn brings both organisational and financial expertise to equilibrium as well as psychological understanding of the issues to do with Bipolar disorder and it’s treatment.

Felicity Bryan – Equilibrium Director/Trustee

Felicity is a leading international literary agent based in Oxford and is a former journalist with The Financial Times, The Economist and The Evening Standard. Her mother suffered from bipolar disorder, as did her daughter Alice who took her life in 2004 aged 22.

Sarah Catliff – Development Director

Sarah brings with her a ten year fundraising background, leading multi-million pound campaigns at the University of Oxford, and charities concerned with culture, the Arts, heritage and medicine. She has a wealth of experience of working with volunteers, friends and philanthropically-minded groups and individuals. She has also worked in publishing and was trained in psychiatric nursing.

Professional Advisory Board Members

Professor Allan Young(UK) – Professional Advisor

Allan holds the Chair of Psychiatry at Imperial College London where he is also Director of the Centre for Mental Health within the Division of Experimental Medicine. He has held academic appointments at the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford, Newcastle upon Tyne, (latterly holding the Chair of General Psychiatry at Newcastle) and UBC, Vancouver, Canada where he held the Leading Edge Endowment Fund Endowed Chair in Research in the Department of Psychiatry and was also the Director of the Institute of Mental Health. His research interests focus on the cause and treatments for severe psychiatric illnesses, particularly mood disorders He has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications and a number of books about Psychopharmacology and Affective Disorders. He is a member of a number of editorial boards and is a member of numerous professional and scientific societies. He is currently Treasurer of the International Society for Affective Disorders and a Fellow and Member of the executive council of the CINP

Professor Nick Craddock(UK)- Professional Advisor

Nick is Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Wales, UK. He studied mathematical sciences in Cambridge, followed by medicine at Birmingham University. He trained in psychiatry at Birmingham and in genetics at Cardiff and St Louis. His research focus is the use of molecular genetics to improve diagnosis and management of bipolar illness. He has published over 180 research articles and is also Scientific Advisor to the Manic Depression Fellowship – The Bipolar Organization (England and Wales). He is currently head of the Cardiff University Psychiatry Service where he specializes in diagnosis and management of bipolar disorder.

Dr. Francesc Colom (Spain) – Professional Advisor

Francesc Colom is the Head of the Psychoeducation and Psychological Treatments Area at the Barcelona Bipolar Disorders Program (IDIBAPS- Hospital Clinic University of Barcelona). The Barcelona Psychoeducation Program, designed by Dr. Colom and co-workers is nowadays the strongest evidence-based psychoeducational program for bipolar patients. His book “Psychoeducation Manual for Bipolar Disorder” has been published in several languages including English, Spanish, Italian, French and Polish.

He has lectured all over the world and published over a hundred scientific articles, written twelve books and contributed chapters to many others. His current research focuses on psychological treatments and the biomarkers of response, treatment adherence, pharmacological issues, cognitive impairment and its remediation; and on clinical issues such as predominant polarity, mixed states and temperament. . In June 2007, he was awarded with the prestigious “Mogens Schou Award” for the excellence of his research.

Professor Hugh Gurling (UK) – Professional Advisor

Hugh is Professor of Molecular Psychiatry at University College, London. He trained in Medicine and Psychiatry at King’s College, London and at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, spending time also at the University of San Diego. His group has been has been working on the genetics of psychiatric disorders since the 1990′s and recently received one million pounds of funding (from the U.K. Medical Research Council) specifically for work on bipolar disorder . He has published more than 160 articles and book chapters in the area. As well as his research Hugh is a clinical psychiatrist, who runs an intensive psychiatric care unit.

Professor Kay Redfield Jamison (USA) – Professional Advisor

A psychologist by training, and Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Univeristy Medical School in Baltimore USA, Dr. Jamison is unique among the world’s most respected authorities on mood disorders as an expert whose writing has been informed by personal as well as professional experience. Dr. Jamison has published over 100 articles in academic journals and is a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, in addition to numerous international and national awards.

She completed her undergraduate and doctoral studies at the University of California, where she was UCLA Graduate Woman of the Year having spent a year at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where she is an Honorary Professor of English. Chosen by Time magazine as a “Hero of Medicine“, Dr. Jamison is undoubtedly a hero to the hundreds of thousands of people with bipolar disorder all over the globe who have read her work and been informed, moved and inspired by it.

Other Advisors

Adam Levin, UK

Adam is a London based corporate partner with the international law firm Dechert LLP. He specialises in private equity transactions, domestic and international acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and corporate advisory work. Adam regularly advises private equity clients on transactional matters. He was formerly a partner at Baker Mckenzie, London and Church & Grace, Sydney and qualified as a solicitor at Slaughter and May joining Dechert in September 2005. Adam has a law degree from King’s College, London and is admitted to practice in England and Wales, qualifying in 1989 as well as in New South Wales, Australia since 1991. Has he experience of advising charities on on financial and structural matters.